Troy and his mother run a hunting lodge in the province of New Brunswick, Canada, so Troy knows his way around that part of the country. At the time of this story, it was a bitterly cold winter with heavy snow falling.
Troy had gone snowmobiling at midnight. He was driving very fast as he crossed a frozen lake. It was snowing so hard that he couldn’t see what was in front of him. Suddenly the snowmobile crashed into an island, and his body flew off the snowmobile!
He didn’t know it at the time, but when he landed, the impact broke his neck, back, ribs, a leg and several fingers. He was in very bad shape! Somehow, he managed to drag himself to a nearby cabin on the island before he lost consciousness on the front steps for the next six hours.
When he finally came to, he was startled to see what he thought was a coyote looking at him. Then he realized it was a very thin dog, a German shepherd that hadn’t eaten for a long time. He talked to the dog, and it stayed with him for the next eight hours. The dog’s company gave him something to think about other than the pain and his fear of dying.
If you were in Troy’s place, would you be afraid of dying? Or could you remind yourself that if you didn’t make it, heaven would be your new home with your Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ who loves you? You had already settled the question of your sins being forgiven, and you could trust Him: “I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in Him will I trust” (Psalm 91:22I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust. (Psalm 91:2)). But some of you reading this probably cannot say for sure where you would be if you died today, no matter what the cause.
At this point, Troy’s chances of making it out of there alive were pretty slim. Just when he had given up hope, his brother found him after following a trail of blood in the snow. He carefully loaded Troy onto his sled and slowly drove back to the hunting lodge where his family tended to Troy while waiting for the ambulance to arrive. He was taken to the hospital and spent the next 13 days in intensive care.
Troy was receiving good care, but the dog wasn’t forgotten. A relative found him and took him to the hunting lodge. Then he was given to a family several miles away, but the dog ran away. Five minutes after Troy came home from the hospital, the dog was on the front steps of the hunting lodge! The family opened the door, and the dog ran inside where Troy was reclining in a chair. For weeks the dog stayed by his side as he recovered.
Troy named the dog Bud, and over time they both got better. Bud once weighed only
40 pounds, but now he is a strong and sturdy 95 pounds. In the five years since the accident, the two are always together. Troy says Bud is the most loyal and devoted dog he’s ever met. He’s very loving and gentle. He is what we would call a “faithful friend.”
But some of us have another Faithful Friend. His name is Jesus, and you can have Him too. He loves us so very much that He died on Calvary’s cross, taking the punishment for the sins of every person who accepts Him as his or her Savior. “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:88But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)).
Have you ever admitted to God that you are a sinner? Have you ever asked Jesus to wash your sins away? It’s His blood alone that can wash you clean from all your sins—past, present and future. That reserves a place for you in heaven, and you’ll never be afraid of dying, like Troy was. Why not settle the matter today!
ML-02/19/2017